


Because A Guy Falls in a Hole

by anomalation



Category: Downton Abbey, The West Wing
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:14:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22166971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anomalation/pseuds/anomalation
Summary: Anna had less of a relationship with Thomas than one might expect, given that they’d worked together for the better part of three years.Exactly what it says on the box.
Relationships: Thomas Barrow & Anna Bates
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	Because A Guy Falls in a Hole

Anna had less of a relationship with Thomas than one might expect, given that they’d worked together for the better part of three years. They were two of the first campaign staff that came on in the early days, pre-New Hampshire. She was an idealist, volunteering for the campaign she believed in. He was a proud D.C. ladder climber, aiming to make enough of a splash that he could run for senate in twelve years. In the end, they had little in common besides the campaign, and that wasn’t enough to build any kind of friendship on. But Thomas didn’t really seem to have any friends, so maybe it was just his problem.

More people came on, as they started winning primaries. A formidable campaign manager, Charlie Carson, with several successful governors’ campaigns under his belt. A stern communications director with a limp, who was hot in an old sort of way. Anna was soon joined by Gwen, and Ethel and Daisy and Ivy, all various levels of assistants and secretaries.

And when they won the election, and the White House positions were all sorted out, Anna ended up as assistant to the Chief of Staff, Charlie Carson. Thomas was his deputy. Anna half expected the mere proximity to do some work, but instead they were less friendly than ever. There were always talking points to discuss, or the schedule for the day, or the latest Republican bullshit that would ruin two months of work.

It was six months in, the schedule tending towards tedium for once. Anna was staying late, while Charlie and the president worked on bill language in the Oval Office. Thomas was in and out, between the Oval and the Roosevelt Room, looking very important and giving rapid-fire orders to an exhausted-looking Gwen. He was whipping the vote, or trying to.

“Still can’t get it over the finish line?” Anna asked at last, on the eighth trip.

A look from Thomas never failed to have a bit of a chilling effect. It was his eyes. Ice blue and opaque. “It’s close,” he said stubbornly.

“Who are the hold-outs?”

“Senior representative from Colorado, a couple from swing districts. Just have to sell the optics.”

Anna felt a little loomed over, sitting at her desk, so she leaned back a bit. “The optics of a bill that will preserve the world for our children?” she said. “Yeah, that’s a hard one.”

"Right. That's what they always say about politics. So easy a secretary could do it," Thomas said, and was gone again.

Anna rolled her eyes, and went back to her emails. Somehow, Charlie had managed to double book himself for tomorrow afternoon and it was now her problem. Plus, several reporters were looking on comment from the Chief of Staff on the president's state of mind, and she needed to read the bill once it was finalized, to see which lobbyists should be fine for a while and who would need some placating sit-downs. Charlie wouldn't meet most of them, he'd pass them off to Thomas, but Gwen would need the details, so Anna made sure she got it all straight.

Thomas was back in twenty minutes. Anna stopped him. "He's on the phone," she said, and Thomas reluctantly paused.

“With who?”

Anna gave him a stern look. “Did you lock it down?” she asked.

“Just about.”

That was a no. Anna must’ve made a face, because Thomas added, snippily, “Let’s see you talk Stockhaus into it faster.”

“Stockhaus as in from Michigan’s 11th?” Anna asked, and Thomas nodded. “Is he here?”

“Roosevelt Room with the others. I’ve used everything short of thumbscrews, and the guy still won’t budge. And he’s got five other moderates waiting on his vote.” Thomas was frustrated. That was the only reason he was saying anything.

“Bring him in here,” Anna said. “Tell him Charlie wants a word.”

“A word about what?”

“He won’t ask. Just bring him here.”

“Only because I’ve been up for 19 hours,” Thomas said. Which, for him, was almost a joke.

He was back in a few minutes with the congressman, chatting about some DC gossip, and Anna made sure she looked busy as they walked in. Then she got to be surprised by the sight of them. “Well,” she said with a smile. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“So you ended up in the White House, huh?” Congressman Stockhaus said with a smile of his own. “I’ve heard Charlie’s a tough boss.”

“Only when people make mistakes,” Anna said solemnly, and the congressman laughed. “Why’re you here so late?” she added.

Stockhaus sighed, and looked at Thomas, who was looking increasingly uneasy at being out of the loop. Thomas immediately gave him a tense smile. “I’m sure you know the bill these boys are trying to pass,” Stockhaus said.

“Always trying to pass something,” Anna said, so he’d explain what it was because then she could play dumb about why he was dragging his heels, and that just about shamed him into giving in. It softened him up quite a bit, at least, and then Anna excused herself to go find Charlie.

“Why am I meeting with him?” Charlie asked.

“To encourage him to vote with us,” Anna said.

“And why do I have the feeling something else is going on here?” he asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Because it is,” Anna said. Charlie wasn’t above being used when the occasion called for it, so he took the meeting and said mostly nothing and got no promise back. But Thomas was back in the office ten minutes later, his shirt unbuttoned and hair unusually mussed.

“How the hell did you do that?” he demanded.

Anna raised her eyebrows. “Tricks of the trade,” she said. “You’re welcome.”

He didn’t thank her, but he did run his hand through his hair and sit in one of the rarely-used chairs. People didn’t sit much in her office. They were mostly on their way to Charlie’s. “You’re full of surprises,” he said.

“Not surprising if you knew anything about me,” she said, attempting to match his air of mystery. But there was no point; she just told him. “I’m from Michigan. His campaign was the first one I worked on.”

Thomas nodded, and looked a little relieved. “Michigan,” he said. “Should I have known that?”

“That’s an odd way to ask if I told you that before,” she said, but she wasn’t really annoyed about it.

“Did you?” he asked unapologetically.

“I don’t remember,” she said. “But honestly I don’t expect you to remember anything personal any of us say.”

“Is that true, or is that a guilt trip?”

“Would a guilt trip work?” she asked with a curious frown, and that won a rare smile from Thomas. “Didn’t think so.”

“Well,” he said after a second. And then, in a pained tone, he added, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” It was sort of a rare delight, to hear thanks from him. Anna took a moment to bask in it. But before that moment was up, Thomas left.

“Anna!” Charlie called from inside his office, and she went to put out whatever fire had sprung up next.

The state of the union was as chaotic as ever. It wasn’t over until the president was onstage delivering it, and even then it wasn’t over. Anna just finally had a second to breathe, before the spin machine started in earnest and the analysis and everything. Before all that, Anna picked up a wrap and tea and took it to her desk to have a rare meal where she didn’t also have to be typing something. The West Wing was silent, for once. Empty, the way it usually only was in the earliest hours of the morning. She took her shoes off to sit cross-legged, and put on a hoodie, and got the arts and culture section of the _Post_. It’d be about an hour until the halls would fill back up. Maybe she’d take a nap.

Anna was a couple bites into her wrap when her phone rang. She debated not answering, but in the end, she picked it up. “Charlie Carson’s office, how can I help you?”

“Oh.” She didn’t recognize the voice at first. “I thought I’d leave a message.”

“Thomas,” she said after a moment.

“Why are you in the office?”

“Because everyone else isn’t. What's your message?"

Instead of answering, Thomas hung up. Anna frowned at her receiver before putting it back down. "Okay then," she said under her breath, and returned to the paper.

A few minutes later, Thomas himself walked in. He was in a tux with the tie undone, and the top two buttons undone. He was carrying a plastic bag from the Chinese place a few blocks away, a binder, and a six pack.

"Why aren't you at the State of the Union?" Anna asked, with a little bit of rising panic.

"Had to go beat the fear of God into Morrison and Codell, put an end to their planned press conference about abortion immediately following the speech. But that took like five minutes, so now I’m prepping for Meet the Press.” He dragged a chair over to the other side of her desk and set everything down on her desk.

“Prepping with a cold one?”

He shrugged, and popped one open. The rest of the six pack went on the floor, and the Chinese came out of the bag. “You think we’ll get hammered on school uniforms?” he asked, and shoveled a large bite in his mouth. Thomas did a good job of keeping up appearances in front of people, but Anna had noticed this before, him eating like someone was about to take it away from him.

This was weird. Anna’s instincts told her to play it cool. “I don’t think anybody’s going to give a shit about school uniforms when we sounded the horn on making abortion protected law,” she answered after a few moments. “And you know that.” To punctuate that, she took a bite.

“Yeah,” Thomas said. “But I was hoping you might let me live in the world where they’re going to be asking us about school uniforms.”

Anna snorted, and glanced up to see Thomas smirking. It warmed his face up, showing emotions, but she thought if she told him, he’d make more of an effort to never do it again. “You guys are confident the bill will pass?” she asked.

“Which bill?” He took a deep swig from his bottle.

“The abortion bill,” she said patiently. “I assume you wouldn’t announce it if you weren’t sure it would pass.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “It’s a sure thing. We’ve got the majority for at least another year, and the Supreme Court is good for us. So. Yeah, we’re gonna take the plunge. Unless you asking is some kind of secret sign you have some information…”

“No,” she said. “That isn’t a regular occurrence.”

“Just checking,” he said, and added after a bite, “You don’t have any more end runs in you?”

Anna shrugged. “One or two.”

He liked that answer, gave her several appreciative looks in the following silence. “Why isn’t Gwen as good as you?” he finally said.

“She’s great,” Anna frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She’s fine,” Thomas said distastefully. “But not great.”

“You haven’t given her the chance to be great,” Anna said, and then continued when he gave her a look. “You haven’t, you hardly want to let her open your mail.”

“She can hardly handle that,” he grumbled.

Anna did not agree, but she took a bite of her wrap to manage her response. Thomas waited patiently, and finished his beer. “What you might’ve failed to notice,” she said at last, “is that she’s very good with people. Good enough to manage you, most of the time, and not hire a hitman. She’s who I’d go to if I need a favor from someone at State, or OEOB, or Treasury-”

“Not the Pentagon?” Thomas said dryly.

“I’m pretty sure she knows an aide there, actually.”

Thomas had very little reaction to that. When he spoke again, it was a new subject, how she thought the section on foreign trade went over, so Anna left it for the moment.

She was prepared to leave it forever, to be frank. Thomas did not accept criticism well, if at all, and Anna did not pursue lost causes. There were higher priorities. But then, she saw Gwen around a little more, looking a little less harried, and she started to wonder. Then they had a tragedy to avert and it was averted, and at the late night dinner they had to celebrate Thomas made a point of telling them Gwen played a major role.

Interesting. It didn’t mean he’d listened to her, but it was certainly interesting.

They passed the abortion bill. It was an uphill fight, and when it was over the victory felt strangely bloodless. Charlie felt it too. “We’re going to pay for this,” he said.

And they did. Well, specifically, Thomas did. Baxter gave him a heads up first, pulling him out of a meeting and whispering something to him that made him go paper-white. Anna caught a glimpse on the way to the copier, though she didn’t know what it was until later.

“Is he in?” Bates asked her and kept walking. So that usually meant some sort of media shit show was about to begin.

Anna wasn’t much for just letting things happen. She called the other assistants to figure it out.

“Something about Thomas,” Gwen said. “He’s locked himself in his office.”

“Oh good,” Anna said unhappily. “What set him off?”

“The meeting he had with the Congressional leadership? That’s my best guess.”

The meeting Baxter had pulled him out of. Anna frowned. “Okay,” she said. “Hang in there.”

“You got it.” Gwen said it with more enthusiasm than she might’ve once.

So it was a matter of time until the other shoe dropped. Anna had plenty to fill her time with - the president’s secretaries office was down one, so she was putting in a little extra work to help them.

It took a few days. Then it was a Friday afternoon, the halls a little more empty than usual, and she spotted Thomas in the mess. He was in a Princeton sweatshirt, checking out. He looked like hell. Anna gave him a tight smile when they made eye contact. Thomas didn't smile at all, but he came over to join her in line for the salad bar.

“Hello,” she said in surprise.

“Hey.”

She kept glancing over at him. He’d changed his hair a little, shorter on the sides. He had very intense dark circles under his eyes, and kept fidgeting. “Are you eating down here?” he asked after a while, when she was closing her salad container.

“I think I need to get back to my desk,” she said, unsure, but then she thought this might be more important. “So it’ll have to be quick.”

Thomas picked the table they sit at, one on the wall, away from everyone else in here, and Anna could tell what this was before he spoke. He opened his paper bag, and pulled out a large cinnamon roll. Anna blinked.

“There’s a story,” he began. “Coming. Bates is going to try and put it out with the trash today, but.”

“Is there anything Charlie can…”

“No,” he snorted. “He wouldn’t anyways.”

“What do you mean?”

Thomas took a large bite of his pastry, and Anna awkwardly had a sip of her iced tea. “Is-” she finally started to talk, and he cut her off.

“I’m gay,” he said, and took another huge bite. “Not,” he added, “that it is or was any of your business. I’d never tell you if it wasn’t coming out anyways.”

Anna was not quite sure how to take that. “Okay,” she said. “Well. Thank you for telling me, anyways.”

Thomas didn’t like that; he glared at her. “Depending on how it goes,” he said, “I might have to resign.”

“Why? That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Don’t be naive.” He had another bite. “Bates has been holding this over my head for a while. Charlie’s probably going to ask me to step down once he knows.”

“Hold on.” He was saying this just factually, but Anna was still trying to catch up. “Holding it over you for what?”

He shrugged. “Leverage.”

“To do what with?”

Thomas ignored this question. “Hiring a new deputy chief of staff will be tough. You should pretend you’re listening to the D triple C but ignore them. Charlie’s already got people in mind, and they’re better.”

“We’re not hiring a new deputy.”

“That seems irresponsible.”

“You’re not resigning,” she said firmly.

That got his attention. He looked at her. The bags under his eyes were dark; this had been keeping him up. “They’re not going to defend me,” he said. “And alienate the moderates. And they’ve got texts I sent.”

“To who?”

“A junior reporter.” He hated admitting that.

Anna made a point of not reacting. She had another drink from her iced tea. “Did you try to use your position-” she began.

“No,” he cut her off, almost a snarl.

“Did you make any promises?”

“No. I’m not stupid.”

“So what’s in the texts?” she asked, and Thomas looked away. The tips of his ears went pink. Ah. “You’re not resigning,” she said again, and opened her salad. They’d be here for a while.

“I have to,” he said. “I’m not bringing down-”

The pity was not a good look on him. Anna steeled herself to lay down some tough love. “You’re not bringing down anything,” she said flatly. “Though I guess it’s great to know how important you think you are.”

That got an impressed smirk out of him. He stayed quiet, a real mark of respect.

Anna continued. “It’s the twenty-first century. That’s not something that will take a person down anymore. We can’t let it.”

“That’s optimistic.”

“Then I guess I’m an optimist.”

He was starting to look a little more normal. “In this town?” he scoffed at her, and returned to his cinnamon roll.

“Yeah,” she said, and began to dig into her salad. She had a few bites before she thought of something. “Wait, what do you mean Bates has been holding it over your head?”

“It’s not a big deal,” Thomas deflected.

This time it made her mad. “It is,” she said. “And we’re going to take care of it.”

“Why? Why are you helping me?”

“Because,” Anna said. “It’s like Charlie’s story. A guy falls in a hole. Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

“We?”

“Yeah. After we finish lunch together.”

So after that, they had lunch more often. Once weekly or so. It was a start.


End file.
